Saturday, June 30, 2012

Squeezing in one more gashapon review before the end of this month. ^^

A figurine that is closely related to the previous gashapon review, this is Lunamaria Hawke from MS Gundam Seed Destiny EF Collection 5. ^^ While she and Meer are technically not of the same set, both of them are from the same gashapon series, or rather shokugan series to be exact. For me however, I managed to get them individually and not as sets, which is definitely great as I avoided all the male characters whom I really don't care a bit about. XD

Released in late March 2006, there are six different figurines in this set, even though it seems that 10 are included instead for an entire set. Apart from Lunamaria, the other five figurines are Lacus Clyne (in pink MS pilot suit ^^), Talia Gladys, Kira Yamato, Athrun Zala and Auel Neider (remember him? XD). The two figurines I managed to get Lunamaria and Talia. ^^ Unlike Meer, the box is intact for Lunamaria, so the packaging design can be seen this time, ^^ not that it's that fancy anyway. ^^;

It's great that an image of the figurine is shown on the box side to show you its size. I didn't bother to put the figurine next to the image to see if it's indeed of accurate scale though. ^^

All six figurines are shown on the back of the box.

Top and bottom views of the box.

(Left) Lacus vs Lunamaria is the focus of this gashapon set?(Right) "Gundam Seed Destiny" merchandising seal at the top corner of the box's left hand side.

I think I mentioned quite a few times how much I like the character in previous reviews on various figurines of Lunamaria, so I'll just cop out here and just go straight to the figurines' images. XD One really shouldn't repeat thepraises and comments for a fictitious character too many times. ^^

Box open.

Content.

Parts of the figurines and those for the display stand are separated.

An instruction sheet on how to attach the display stand and clip to the figurine is included.

Like Shinn ,Heine and Meer, you can line up Lunamaria and Lacus to form a scene of rivalry of some sort, which is a very weak setup in my opinion since the two never really interacted with each other in the anime.

A little bit of assembly required, as the figurine is being separated into a few parts.

The figurine can stand very firmly once fixed to the display base, so the display stand is really not necessary at all. ^^

Looking at how the name is printed on the display base, Lunamaria's right hand side is indeed the front view of the figurine. ^^

More closeups on the figurine:

Unlike Meer, the figurine's head can be turned to give Lunamaria different viewpoints for a little bit of change in angle of display.

Instead of looking to her back, Lunamaria can be posed looking to her right hand side now. ^^

The default not-facing-forward pose does give this figurine a pretty special look, even though the neck joint does allow you to turn the head to the front for a more "conventional" pose. ^^ I like the light pink "waves" printed on her hair as well. I think they give the figurine a more anime-accurate look, which is something not available on all the other gashapon figurines of Lunamaria reviewed in the past.

Just realize that all of them are in ZAFT MS pilot suit. ^^ Even the RAH DX figurine version I have (not shown here) also features Lunamaria in pilot suit. ^^ More Lunamarias are coming in the future, some which won't be of pilot suit type anymore. ^^